Bear McCreary

  • INTERNATIONAL FILM MUSIC CRITICS ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF 2018 IFMCA AWARDS; “SOLO” TAKES SCORE OF THE YEAR, MULTIPLE WINS FOR JOHN POWELL, JAMES NEWTON HOWARD

    FEBRUARY 21, 2018 — The International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) announces its list of winners for excellence in musical scoring in 2018, in the 2018 IFMCA Awards.

    The award for Score of the Year goes to British composer John Powell for his score for the Star Wars spin-off story “Solo,” which looked at the early life of the legendary rogue and intergalactic smuggler Han Solo. The film was directed by Ron Howard, and starred Alden Ehrenreich, Emilia Clarke, and Donald Glover. In describing the score, IFMCA members Asier Senarriaga and Óscar Giménez called Solo “a spectacular score that combines the classic ideas of Williams with the talent of Powell,” and proclaimed it “the score of the year,” while IFMCA member Jon Broxton – speaking about the score’s multitude of recurring character themes - said that the way Powell “incorporates all the thematic complexity into his score is masterful, but best of all is the way he allows them to develop organically; this is not just a rigid leitmotif score where mathematics trumps emotion. Instead, Powell engages in sensible and appropriate development, meaning that when the emotional outbursts do come, they pack a real wallop, and satisfy both the heart and the brain in equal measure.”

    The score is also named Best Original Score for a Fantasy/Science Fiction/Horror Film, while John Williams’s contribution to the score, the standalone piece “The Adventures of Han,” is named Film Music Composition of the Year. These are the seventh and eighth IFMCA Award wins of Powell’s career; he previously won the Score of the Year award for “How to Train Your Dragon” in 2010.

    James Newton Howard is named Composer of the Year, and takes home the award for Best Original Score for an Action/Adventure/Thriller Film for his work on the controversial Jennifer Lawrence Cold War spy thriller “Red Sparrow,” for which he wrote an astonishingly powerful classical overture for the film’s opening ballet sequence, as well as some intense action and suspense music. IFMCA member Mihnea Manduteanu described Red Sparrow as “beautiful and passionate” and “melodic and furious”.

    Howard’s other work in 2018 was just as outstanding, and included the second Harry Potter spinoff film “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” and the lavish fantasy “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms,” which was inspired by Tchaikovsky’s seminal ballet. IFMCA member Christian Clemmensen called Fantastic Beasts an “accomplished and mature fantasy score” which “sits comfortably with Howard's accomplished genre works and competes favorably for a place amongst 2018's best scores.” These are the ninth and tenth IFMCA Awards of Howard’s career. He previously received IFMCA Score of the Year honors in 2006 for “The Lady in the Water”.

    British composer Amelia Warner is named Breakthrough Composer of the Year for her enormously impressive mainstream debut work scoring the literary drama based on the life of the groundbreaking horror author “Mary Shelley”. IFMCA member Peter Simons said that Mary Shelley was “a wonderful score … mesmerizing … unlike anything I’ve heard in a long time, if ever. The use of synth and vocals over strings and piano is just exquisite. There is always something interesting going on, either melodically or aurally … it’s one of the most exciting scores of the year”.

    The various other genre awards are won by Max Richter for his classically-inspired music for the historical drama “Mary Queen of Scots”; Marc Shaiman for his loving, nostalgic homage to Walt Disney and the Sherman Brothers on the comedy musical sequel “Mary Poppins Returns”; Mark McKenzie for his spectacularly beautiful, reverent score for the Mexican animated film “Max and Me”; and Pinar Toprak for her broad, adventurous, expansive orchestral score for the yacht-racing documentary “Tides of Fate”. With this win Toprak is now the only person with more than two IFMCA Award nominations to win every time she has been nominated – her previous wins were for “The Lightkeepers” (Comedy, 2010) and “The Wind Gods” (Documentary, 2011).

    In the non-film categories, composer Christopher Lennertz wins the award for Best Original Score for a Television Series for his bold, exciting score for the rebooted version of the classic sci-fi series “Lost in Space,” while composer Bear McCreary wins the award for Best Original Score for a Video Game or Interactive Media for his thrilling score for the action adventure game “God of War”.

    Burbank, California-based La-La Land Records is named Film Music Record Label of the Year in recognition of their ongoing excellence in restoring and releasing the most beloved film scores of the past. Acclaimed album producer Mike Matessino receives both Archival Awards: one for his work restoring and releasing John Williams’s classic score for the 1979 Frank Langella version of “Dracula” on the Varèse Sarabande label, and one for his work in putting together the lavish box set of John Williams’s three Harry Potter scores - “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” and “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” – for La-La Land Records. Producer Robert Townson shares the award for Dracula, and album artist Jim Titus worked on both releases.

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    FILM SCORE OF THE YEAR

    • SOLO, music by John Powell

     

    FILM COMPOSER OF THE YEAR

    • JAMES NEWTON HOWARD

     

    BREAKTHROUGH COMPOSER OF THE YEAR

    • AMELIA WARNER

     

    BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A DRAMA FILM

    • MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS, music by Max Richter

     

    BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A COMEDY FILM

    • MARY POPPINS RETURNS, music by Marc Shaiman

     

    BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR AN ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLER FILM

    • RED SPARROW, music by James Newton Howard

     

    BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A FANTASY/SCIENCE FICTION/HORROR FILM

    • SOLO, music by John Powell

     

    BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR AN ANIMATED FILM

    • MAX AND ME, music by Mark McKenzie

     

    BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A DOCUMENTARY

    • TIDES OF FATE, music by Pinar Toprak

     

    BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A TELEVISION SERIES

    • LOST IN SPACE, music by Christopher Lennertz

     

    BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A VIDEO GAME OR INTERACTIVE MEDIA

    • GOD OF WAR, music by Bear McCreary

     

    BEST ARCHIVAL RELEASE - NEW RELEASE OR NEW RECORDING OF AN EXISTING SCORE

    • DRACULA, music by John Williams; album produced by Mike Matessino and Robert Townson; liner notes by Mike Matessino; art direction by Jim Titus (Varèse Sarabande)

     

    BEST ARCHIVAL RELEASE – COMPILATION

    • HARRY POTTER: THE JOHN WILLIAMS SOUNDTRACK COLLECTION; music by John Williams; album produced by Mike Matessino; liner notes by Mike Matessino; art direction by Jim Titus (La-La Land)

     

    FILM MUSIC LABEL OF THE YEAR

    • LA-LA LAND, MV Gerhard, Matt Verboys

     

    FILM MUSIC COMPOSITION OF THE YEAR

    • “The Adventures of Han” from SOLO, written by John Williams

  • McCreary Gets Badass

    Perhaps with tongue firmly in cheek, Knights of Badassdom (2013) finds a group of friends heading out to enact a real-life Dungeons and Dragons-like scenario only to inadvertently call up a real evil force.  Joe Lynch shifts to be behind the camera for his first feature film.  Fortunately, he has managed to secure Bear McCreary as his composer for this fantasy/comedy.  Adding an edge to the score are a host of heavy metal and rock musicians from Whitesnake (Doug Aldrich) to Oingo Boingo (Steve Bartek).  The film appears to have had a very limited US release in late January.  The score is being released on the composer's Sparks and Shadows label and as a download.

    After a few birdcalls, “The Kingdom of Eliphaz” starts with Celtic-flavored folk music that quickly turns into Celtic folk rock.  The use of Uilleann and other pipes throughout the score helps set up this ethnic flavor well and often provide the primary thematic statements in the score.  Thematic ideas are again quite engaging and McCreary perfectly shifts from lyrical orchestral sounds to the more folk rock styles very well within a sequence often by moving to a solo instrumental statement of an idea.  It is somewhat amusing to hear the use of guitar licks against some of these ethnic ideas in tracks like “Slightly Badass” and “Demon Apes.”  The heavy metal sound an also take over the music in places like “Paintballers.”  It also helps add to some of the horror music intensity for tracks like “The Hell Lord Abominog” which also features some female wailing (courtesy of Raya Yarbrough).  McCreary moves from these larger masses to more traditional orchestral subtlety as “Earn Our Valor” begins.  Then it grows into a more heavy metal track.

    There are a few songs here composed for the film.  “Your Heart Sucks My Soul” features a “garage” version and a more “restrained” version.  Brendan McCreary is the featured vocalist here and in “Joe’s Power Ballad” and the concluding “At the Gates”.  The blend of Celtic sounds help create a nice epic feel with the heavy metal portions providing a more contemporary thrust as needed.  Easily recommended to those fans of Celtic-flavored scores.  Knights of Badassdom is yet another example of McCreary’s versatility.